Charlie Laderman is a Lecturer in International History in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.
This extraordinary and powerful book on the Armenian question
addresses a long neglected issue, one perceived at the time as
being of great significance to US foreign policy in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on massive archival
research in US, British, French, and Armenian primary and secondary
sources, this is a systematic, judicious, and elegantly presented
volume. ... Besides excavating the details of the specific
questions and issues arising from the case of Armenia, Laderman's
comprehensive and wide-ranging study illuminates the implications
for broader debates over the scope and limits of the global US
role.
*Transatlantic Studies Association Book Prize*
A tremendous volume. The sheer amount of research that went into
the book is staggering, and Laderman's interpretations of the data
are fresh and provocative. Readers will learn much about the
Armenian question. They will also discover broader revelations
about U.S. foreign relations in the book, challenging not just the
history they know, but how history can be told.
*Aroop Mukharji, H-Diplo*
Laderman makes a persuasive case that the Armenian question weighed
heavily on the minds of official and non-governmental actors within
the British and American empires. Going forward, historians of
Gilded Age and Progressive Era Anglo-American relations,
imperialism, and humanitarianism will need to grapple with the
Armenian question with Sharing the Burden as the new starting
point.
*Marc-William Palen, Diplomatic History*
A thoroughly researched and highly compelling account of how the
Armenian question acted as a catalyst for an emerging
American-British geopolitical alliance and the United States' rise
as a predominant actor in the international arena....[A] truly
visionary presentation of the Armenian question as a precursor for
the future dilemmas of humanitarian intervention in general and of
American global leadership in particular....The book will remain an
essential read for current and future American policymakers as they
reflect on their personal leadership's potential and limitations,
the factors driving their nation's willingness to engage the world,
and the risks that come with 'sharing the burden' of international
leadership and humanitarian intervention.
*Tobias Cremer, Providence Magazine*
A fascinating and thoroughly assured work of international
political history....With immense skill, Laderman weaves together
numerous strands, including transatlantic relations, the politics
of intervention, the role of missionaries, the rise of the US as a
global power, various international and historical contexts, and
World War I. Sharing the Burden is highly topical and immensely
stimulating.
*from the shortlist citation for the Whitfield Prize of the Royal
Historical Society*
By analysing a series of episodes many today have forgotten about,
Laderman...reminds us that the dilemmas of humanitarian
intervention that have bedevilled policymakers in recent decades
are, in fact, not new problems at all....He persuasively argues
that the 'Armenian question' is intimately tied up with the rise of
the United States as a world power....The next time American
leaders consider such an intervention, they would be wise to read
Laderman's impressive book.
*Grant Golub, LSE Review of Books*
Laderman's persuasive and readable history has implications for the
present day. The congressional resolutions last fall were, largely,
a rebuke of Turkey for its current invasion of northern
SyriaCongressional resolutions are very welcome, but history
suggests that these Christians should not expect much more from
America. Just as in the last century, despite the best intentions,
America's commitment to Christians in the Middle East today is
limited: well wishes, exhortations for equality and tolerance, some
humanitarian assistance-though nothing like the massive
humanitarian campaign that took place in the last century and saved
so many lives....The sad lesson of Laderman's book is this: if
Christians in Syria expect the American government to do more to
help them, they will find themselves on their own
*Mark L. Movsesian, Law and Liberty blog*
When -- if ever -- should liberal democratic States intervene
abroad to stop atrocities and abuses of basic human rights, even
when they have the power to do so? The problem of humanitarian
intervention is no recent one, as Charlie Laderman shows in his
incisive and empathetic study of the widely-covered Turkish
atrocities against the Armenians. Again and again, leading US
statesmen and opinion-makers considered the tempting possibility of
'sharing the burden,' of joint Anglo-American actions to rescue the
desperate Armenians. Yet it was not to be. This is superb political
and diplomatic history, with a sobering message for policy-makers
and pundits today.
*Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers*
In the early twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow
Wilson believed it their duty as statesmen to prevent further
killings of Armenian Christians, eventually reckoned at 1.5
million. Sharing the Burden is an invaluable account of reactions
by missionaries, as well as the US and British governments, to
genocide.
*Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin*
A compelling and beautifully-written history of the centrality of
the Armenian question in trans-Atlantic politics before and after
the Great War. No other book gives humanitarianism in foreign
policy making its due in this period using extensive archival
research placed in the context of global history.
*Kathleen Dalton, author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous
Life*
Anyone interested in US foreign relations during the Gilded Age and
Progressive Era should read this important book. Focusing on the
international politics of humanitarian intervention in the Ottoman
Empire to aid the Armenians, Laderman provides new insights into
the promise and failure of the League of Nations and its mandate
system to create a new world order after World War I.
*Lloyd E. Ambrosius, University of Nebraska-Lincoln*
Charlie Laderman does an outstanding job showing how humanitarian
and religious outrage at the Armenian massacres set the stage for
American intervention in the Cuban war for independence from Spain
and presaged America shaping the international order in the
twentieth century. Sharing the Burden is an essential read for
understanding the importance of shared values in American and
British foreign policy.
*Kori Schake, author of Safe Passage: The Transition from British
to American Hegemony*
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